💌 You're Invited to a Summer of Intuition Building and Creative Unblocking

Join us for an asynchronous Artist's Way pop-up starting in June + Pat Flynn and Matthew Gartland share behind-the-scenes community-building best practices

May 17, 2024

Hi Friends,

In mid-December, following a moment of peak uncertainty, I finally decided to dust off my copy of Julia Cameron’s three-decades-long classic, The Artist’s Way.

I bought my first copy in 2008 but didn’t do much with it. Yeah, yeah, morning pages, I would say to myself, without doing them. Or Artist Dates, sure sure, also without committing to any structure or sense of play. These practices always fell by the wayside, trumped by daily life and business demands.

Frustrated by feeling stuck, I committed at the end of last year, creating an epic Notion tracker template (of course!), and promising myself to follow the three months faithfully by reading one chapter each week, reflecting on the ten “tasks,” writing morning pages, and going on a solo Artist Date.

Following the book to the letter helped me recommit to “creative unblocking,” the 12-week process’s primary aim, which included many delightful developments: generating new insights with the daily pages, reconnecting to my intuition and to a sense of higher guidance, ramping up my creative writing practices, and faithfully taking myself out on Artist Dates in New York City each week that sparked serendipity and made my inner kid happy.

Pure Dalmatian puppy bliss! No yoga actually happened. And this was before the mimosas started flowing 🥂

Mine included a puppy+bubbles yoga class (!!), Brooklyn Museum zine exhibit, hidden tea shop on the UWS, a writing workshop tucked into an LES bookstore, a ceramics class in midtown, adventures on the Metro North, and many more fun outings I would have otherwise not made time for.

You don’t have to be an artist to follow this process. If you want to complement the business activities you’re already doing—and take a little break from obsessing over outcomes—I invite you to join us this summer for a pop-up community experiment :)

Keep reading to find out how this will work . . .

📣 Starting in June! 🎨 Free Time x Artist’s Way

For paying Free Time subscribers, June through August, hosted in the Substack app chat

This will be a 12-week asynchronous accountability group based on Julia Cameron’s creative cluster guidelines for her bestselling book The Artist’s Way—a cornerstone for countless creatives for over thirty years now.

I’m not teaching from any sort of expert seat, just facilitating to help us all stay accountable to bringing forth more creativity, intuition, and authenticity.

We’ll be piloting within Substack’s chat feature: I have no clue if we’ll like that communication mode, but I have seen other groups having a lot of fun with it!

✅ To join:

Upgrade your subscription to paid, even if just for the next three months ($24)
Get your copy of the book: Amazon (paperback is currently $8.30!) / Bookshop
Invite a friend! Forward this message to them, and/or if you refer at least three, your subscription is free :)
Refer a friend
I’ll send more kick-off details and the templates in two weeks :) You’ll also get instant access to 21 bonus episodes of the Free Time book companion course.

Available for iOS and Android

💻 Watch the Replay: Bonus Q&A

We also had a blast earlier this week hosting Pat Flynn and Matthew Gartland for a behind-the-scenes Q&A about their community and courses for small business owners — and the strategic choices they’ve made to build such a thriving community.

Check out the recording and show notes:

🎧 Free Time (Podcast)

Q&A with Pat Flynn and Matthew Gartland about the SPI Pro Community

❤️ Jenny Blake

May 14, 2024

Q&A with Pat Flynn and Matthew Gartland about the SPI Pro Community

We had so much fun on the call with Pat Flynn and Matthew Gartland who shared more behind-the-scenes about their SPI Pro community, and how they think about community-building from a business perspective. I’ve been in talks with SPI for the last several months about ways we can collaborate, especially for those of you seeking more in-depth community support.

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